Tulis rips mandatory auto insurance bill
Fraud litigation persists as assembly works to extend 'Eye of Sauron' powers
IMMEDIATE RELEASE — David Tulis (423) 544-2285 davidtuliseditor@gmail.com
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Thursday, March 12, 2026 — A radio reporter suing to end universal mandatory auto insurance says a bill advancing in the legislature “will continue a state-based fraud to abuse the poor.”
HB 1690 would make registration of any motor vehicle contingent on the owner’s showing paperwork indicating insurance coverage.
“These fraudsters supporting the insurance cartels are forcing people to buy insurance they cannot afford to obtain policies that are legally insufficient,” says David Tulis of Eagle Radio Network in Chattanooga.
Tulis has two state lawsuits on appeal and is pressing a federal case to end what he calls “the Eye of Sauron” program of the departments of safety and revenue. In U.S. District Court he’s suing revenue Commissioner David Gerregano personally for “a knowing and intentional fraud against me and against more than 1 million poor people who cannot escape his lawless compulsory auto insurance racket.”
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Tim Hicks with cosponsors Reps. Dan Howell of Georgetown, Esther Helton-Haynes of Chattanooga and others, all Republicans.
Tulis says in filings that earlier amendments “did not convert the after accident voluntary insurance law into a universal mandatory insurance law.”
The journalist and law blogger who has filed multiple public interest lawsuits says the department of revenue operates as “bag man” for insurers using the electronic insurance verification system, or EIVS. Tulis likens EIVS to an eyeball on a tower that he says “scours the landscape and burns it out, starting with the insurance industry non-customer poor.” A revenue deputy commissioner and an administrative judge say in legal filings the law intends to “ban” the poor from using the roads.
“These officials convert every poor person into an irresponsible person liable for performance under the law,” Tulis says. “Wealth is not a precondition for use of the public right of way.”
The departments won initial victories in Davidson County chancery court. A negative administrative ruling is on appeal in Hamilton County chancery.
Tulis says that the commissioners “pretend that any ordinary operator’s or owner’s policy is legally sufficient for proof of financial responsibility.” He says the law requires people under license suspension to have insurance to maintain the privilege, and that they buy a special policy called a motor vehicle liability policy.
“These corrupt public servants pretend the SR-22 certificate is insignificant and has no meaning. The departments’ program of administering and surveilling suspended parties relies on the certificate. The insurance requirement is upon suspendees. They alone have to have the SR-22.”
Legal filings allege the program abrogates 28 provisions of the law and causes nine breaches of the constitution.